Shin Megami Tensei V - Apocalypse Redefined? 

EDIT: Already realized I messed something up - I explained the "passing" mechanic incorrectly, in other games it also consumes half a turn, however passing again would cause you to lose a press turn icon - in this game, the next turn is kept. My point still stands, but I didn't explain it clearly. You'll have to let me know how I did on this video, it's a special occasion since I received a review code for the game. Though it was fun, I'm not quite used to writing in this style and hope the quality doesn't suffer for it. It's great to see so many people talking about SMT V, and while I do have a lot of critiques for it, it was fun overall. Experience videos for SMT 2, Giten, and Last Bible are still coming, as usual.

Holy shit, Marsh finally isn't reviewing a Japanese Exclusive game made in 1776 for the Romero SuperSquare With a fan translation only available on the deep web It's a Christmas miracle!

The fact he received a review code is pretty mind-blowing, atlus is out here supporting the smaller channels

This man has been forged in the crucible of a dozen SMT games; I respect no other's opinion more

The single biggest missed opportunity in this game was the Bethel branches and their leaders. Here you have an SMT game where YHVH is officially dead and his throne of power is up for grabs, and you have all these massively powerful demons representing major religions and mythologies, only to have maybe one or two scenes with them and generic boss fights in the middle of nowhere. Characters like Zeus just hanging out stationary in a pile of rubble in the corner of area 4 waiting for you to kill them is such a letdown. They should've cut all the Lahmu shit, made the second area about the disagreements and splintering of the Bethel factions, and have the third and fourth areas involve a war between them with your main cast taking inspiration from these branches to fulfill their own paths. You could even get a bunch of full-blown dungeons with Hinduist, Nordic, Egyptian, Greek themes and so on!

I completely agree with it feeling like a "skeleton" of a story. I really liked some of the worldbuilding, the idea behind a Nahobino, and for once I actually empathised with each alignment to some degree, but once you dive even slightly into any of the character growth or the plot beats it starts to feel apart. I still personally loved the game regardless, and each of the routes feeling interesting to me gave me something to grab onto narratively, but I don't know what happened with the story overall.

Its crazy how much I felt for Jonathan and his reasoning in smt4's law route compared to how much I hate everything law is represented as in smt V. It also feels weird that the compendium descriptions use the nine alignment system but nothing else is done with that anywhere as far as I ever noticed.

I agree with everything. I love having an open SMT world and they started off good, but adding a few dungeons in there would break up the monotony and homogeneous feeling of all of the areas. They really did start to feel samey with different color filters. I guess they spent a lot of time learning how to make the open world function and then quickly did the story at the end. Hopefully they don't give up on this format and just improve it for the next game (or fix it with dlc ig). All in all I still love this game a lot and am on a 3rd playthrough. Also this review was great and I hope you consider making another review in the future!

You know what'd been cool? If they did more with the Nahobino stuff. I wanted more fights with humanoid Nahobinos, but all we got was Tsukoyomi.

Weird to see them cling so hard to the world of Nocturne when that was literally its weakest element. Not the setting mind, it's a cool place to think about, but while playing it's mostly demons without much going on. I liked IV because, despite the gameplay changes, it made a point to have a much more interesting world that felt inhabited. The most distinguishing element about V is that it does no one thing uniquely well. Regardless, great work here. Very insightful.

I think my feelings are mostly the same. Perfectly fine with the combat, even with the wacky level damage scaling and dampeners. But the story was pretty underwhelming. I think the biggest problem is that NOTHING interesting happens. Sure, people hated IV Apocalypse's story, but at least the idea of fighting a pantheon of gods, who turn a giant sunflower snake into an egg to recreate the universe, is pretty exciting. V just doesn't have that "cool" factor that the previous stories had. I just hope the rushed story is down to growing pains caused by the switch to Unreal Engine.

I like what I "think" is the idea for the reps. Dazai is a self doubting guy with good intentions but no drive, so when he's given a purpose greater than himself he slowly becomes more radicalized. Yuzuru wants to protect his home and family so he goes all in on finding what on paper is a good to do that without thinking of the ramifications of a multitude of gods ruling things. And Yakumo is an interesting choice for a neutral rep since while he could be have been all "humanity and middle ground for the win" he himself only cares for certain human lives and his rather unshakable from these views. The problem is the only one with any visible development is Dazai and that's rushed. Yakumo is fun as a flat character and a maybe meta jab at the just kill both sides motif for most neutral routes, but other than that? ...Nuwa's hot, I guess. Oh, and Yuzuru is there. The strangest chaos rep.

When you get a new video notification from Marsh, you just know its gonna be another certified hood classic 🤝🏿💯

I completely agree with the alignment lock part, i mean, it has its problems, like if you want an specific ending you may need a guide (specially for neutral, and specially in SMT IV with those sidequest) but man it feels a lot more rewarding than a screen that literally says "choose your ending", when i played IV for the first time I felt fulfilled when after the alignment lock i saw Stephen in the white forest and i inmediatly knew i ended up in the neutral route.

I agree that Sahori's death was goofy but it's definitely not the goofiest scene when we got Dazai going full Vergil at the end.

Say what you want about the two, I loved SMT IV and Apocalypse's demon voice acting, especially like Lucifer and YHVH. The voice mixing in SMT V was just... weird. Especially comparing say Metatron's fires of sinai from Nocturne or the Remaster compared to SMT V's god awful voice equivalent.

I agree with everything you've said and imo you were being charitable, I've had more problems than you had with the game, namely a severe lack of enemy variety within some areas, really awful HP scaling of demons, poorly balanced spread of elemental demons across the compendium, complete abscence of worthwhile endgame ( there are like TWO end-game bosses and zero secret dungeons/areas), severely lacking final stretch ( come on, it was a corridor with some loot and two lame bosses whom you could punk in two turns if you were on your Secret Ending playthrough), and the worst crime of all - NO PUZZLE BOY! No puzzles period! But overall I'm glad it came out - I love seeing SMT mainline in 3D and it's really gorgeous, great animations for skills and some awesome gameplay improvements with few rough spots. Hopefully they'll make good use of these assets and experience and announce some SMT spin-off, be it a new series or a sequel to Raidou/DeSu/DDS or even a sequel a la SMT 4 Apocalypse.

I thought Da'at was super cool. Yeah there was sand/snow and busted buildings in every area, but they all had their own vibe and it was fun to explore. I wouldn't mind more diversity though. The story was lackluster, but everything else about SMT V is my favorite in the mainline series.

It's so strange to see this release as just "OK" for an SMT game, when it took soooo much development time.

I honestly really really liked this game, even with the admittedly half-baked story. The combat was fun, I enjoyed the customization of both my party members and the main character, and I loved all the side quests. The music was also a high-point, and one of my favorite soundtracks in the series. I will admit that playing strange journey after smt v really opened my eyes to how much more the story and characters could have been, and I wish that the realism from the characters in nocturne made it over to v. Overall though, I had a very fun time with the game, so i cant give it less than an 8/10

For me, once I realized none of my choices mattered till the end, it totally ruined the game for me honestly. It made me feel like I wasted my time sitting there, considering my choices because honestly I sat there and did. The story was a snore fest and really the only thing I enjoyed was the combat. When I saw so many people praising this game and saying that all SMT games have to be like this from now on, I just really didn't get how anyone came to that conclusion but that's just my own feeling on it.

I agree with the whole Axiom ballbusting thing they’ve been doing lately to some of the games ever since Nocturne came out. It’s like, hey man, let me enjoy the moment. Stop with existential looping crisis for once. Despite how fun the game is gameplay wise, the balance kinda falls apart for me after a while but this is probably an issue for the minority who expected a lot more coming from the near perfect combat system of Apocalypse.

I personally like SMT V a lot more than most reviews seem to, since a lot of the critiques just don't matter as much to me, but I 100% think the level scaling in combat and story in general should've been better. It was definitely rushed and we will get a Maniax or Apocalypse version like with every other SMT game, but I'm not confident it'll be able to solve a lot of the story's problems

The only big thing I disagree with is that I really enjoyed the demon king's temple. It has a few really good moments towards the end that expanded on the spatial reasoning that Nocturne liked to capitalize on. The final dungeon was just... kinda baffling with how terrible it was. I kept thinking some crazy puzzle was about to happen with the time stop mechanics but it just never happened. Given how quick it was from the first trailer to release, I can't help but wonder if it was rushed - there are a lot of aspects of the game that feel unfinished. Really I'm just glad to hear someone else comment on the godawful voice filter - it wasn't too unbearable in IV when most of the voiced dialogue came from humans, but demons do a lot more talking in V and it gets insanely grating and completely ruins the solid work of the VAs. Good shit as always m8, looking forward to the next videos.

I feel like after the SMT4 changes Atlus became lost because they were split between making 5 into a traditional smt, Nocturne, and the more modern stuff, Persona and the DS titles.

Not gonna lie, in terms of the characters, i feel like i'm more attached to characters that was literally called CHAOS Hero and LAW Hero in SMT 1 way more than any of the characters in SMT V. I still really enjoy the game, the gameplay definitely hard carried the whole game for me.

It's so tragic that the more visually beautiful these games become, there's simply no substance. I grew up so excited about how good SMT was and I couldn't wait to see high resolution, fully fleshed out demon designs and worlds. I'm halfway through my 20s now, and I'm so, so disappointed in modern gaming 😓

Honestly if the next mainline game has the exploration, overworld and battle mechanics as good as SMT V with the alignment system of SMT 4 or Strange Journey and a story that's at least as compelling as Strange Journey we'd have the perfect SMT game on our hands. But for now I'd like to chalk up SMT V to an experiment with new hardware, a germ of a good idea with its story but a tad undercooked. I'd still recommend it as an introduction to the series but not as strongly as I would Strange Journey or SMT 3. Also just get rid of the Mitama demons as free EXP and skill point dispensers they can break the game in half even without the DLC. Oh and the DLC can just go too, starting to smell a bit like Todd Howard over here with the three Demon's DLC, not as bad as the horse armor but it's up there.

You're far from alone; I miss having actual dungeons too. As cool as the idea of open-world SMT is, it can never match the feeling of genuine triumph that comes from conquering a massive, cruel, sprawling shit pit and kicking the shit out of whatever boss is insane enough to call this place his home. Da'at doesn't have that feeling, in my opinion.

Marsh reviewing a recent smt game was the last thing I was expecting

I was admittedly had a lot of reservations about the open world since I'm not a fan of many of the AAA open world games, but I ended up really enjoying it. I get the point of all the areas being too similar, and while I do think they could've been more differing, I still enjoyed the different areas because the layouts still felt different, and I still had a ton of fun exploring the worlds, since there was always stuff in every nook and cranny, so there's always something to find. The story is pretty lame though, it feels like they had a lot of ideas that they just didn't put enough time into, like they planted the seeds, but never watered them. I personally love the games atmosphere and gameplay, and was very happy with this game. I was personally able to tolerate the plot simply because I think other aspects make up for it, but I totally understand how it can be a deal breaker for others. So overall not my favorite mainline game, (still goes to nocturne) I still enjoyed it thouroughly, and enjoyed your take on it

I think the level advantage system absolutely shits on the game's combat. The fact that you know that it's not skill, but an arbitrary amount of time spent in the game that determines the difficulty level of a fight is absolutely TERRIBLE

This is why I don't care for too many modern games. Producers and companies sacrifice deep story plot and complex world fiction for easy to digest themes that can drag net a large audience and fancy visuals to distract you from the paper thin environment and simplistic mapping that makes sure you never need to worry about getting lost or losing your way through the game world. I hope they don't do the same for Persona 6 when it comes out.

Glad to hear other people felt the world was as bland as me. I've played other open world games and not only is V lacking in unique environments, but moving around the world is mind-numbing due to no real movement options; just running and stiff jumping. It also annoys me when people say story doesn't matter when SMT4 exists. Having the characters follow you and seeing how they develop and drift apart was great. Not to mention the factions in the story actually interacted and you got to talk to tons of NPCs that were stuck in the middle of it all. This game tried so hard to be the next Nocturne, but it lacks the main thing it's praised for: Reasons. Instead we got probably the worst Law/Chaos story in the series. I got Yakumo's ending and I honestly thought it was the chaos ending due to how it was written. Overall it's a good game, but compared to any other mainline game it comes up short in pretty much every category.

Can't agree with exploration. While I would have liked more variety, it still kept me engaged and had me looking through every nook and cranny. (Dungeons sucked though) I think something can be said for lvl design that makes open exploration feel natural and pretty fun. You have to remember for SMT 5 unlike games like nocturne, theres not that much risk physically walking back to the save point, it simply wastes your time going back and forth. I personally find teleporting back better then saving on the sport like other recent games, where theres at least the pain of getting back where you were as a punishment. While light, it was often enough keep me going without teleporting back. I played hard, and encounters for much of the game didn't need assistance in the tense department .

So basically... the game lacks a heart? Unlike some other ATLUS games released in the recent years? Now where have I heard that before...

Thank you for the spoiler warning. I really want to hear your review but I'll beat the game first and get back to on that. I think I've seen all your videos, even the real early meme ones so Im excited to see what you say.

You had a deeper connection with Charlie, a guy only really memorable for eternally holding his nuts, than ANY of the characters in SMT 5. That speaks volumes.

This is my first SMT game besides Persona. Gotta say I love the world of Da'at and the battles. But even though I haven't played the other SMT's, I was pretty let down by every NPC besides Dazai. I just started 3 Nocturne and already am more enamored by the world of it than 5.

While I understand and even agree with some points, I see this entry in a much brighter light(not 9 or 10 out of 10 levels but more so 8). Talking to other people I've kind of accepted I'm gonna be the weirdo that likes the story because while I do also feel it's undercooked in many areas I think there are some interesting details here and there to think about but my opinion might radically change in a year. Combat is tight and the fusion systems continue to keep getting better with each entry, making the strongest demons is so satisfying but things should have probably been toned down (frequency of essences and items lessened for example). Exploration I'm split on, I love the music and how it shifts as you progress through an area, the layout of the fourth zone is clever as it just throws you in surrounded by strong foes, leaving you a bit disorientated at the start. Exploration can be really comfy but I wish there was a balance between dungeons and open worlds, less sand and more surprises with the larger foes. SMT V is from my perspective, a similar situation as IV was when it came out, there is no strong community consensuses. You have people who love it, hate it or strongly on the fence and I'm curious where the needle will go in years time. I doubt it will be beloved as IV turned out to be, maybe it will forever be in flux. The biggest thing to come out of V though is that we finally have an SMT game on console again and in turn all of these 3D demons and assets, my dream is Atlus is do what they did after Nocturne; make a bunch of spin offs using those assets and exploring ideas in both narrative and gameplay. Like what if got a new Devil Summoner with another Kuzunoha or hell, a remake of SMT 1 as the 30th anniversary is this year. I could talk endlessly about stuff like this and the games themselves, it's why I love them so much. Solid video, it's clear this type of style is new to you but you did well, extremely looking forward to the Last Bible video as I'd love to learn about them and see if they are worth trying out myself.

People really underestimate (or just don't really have a handle on) what SMT accomplished story-wise and character-wise in the past. There's a reason why Chaos Hero has so much amazing fanart, his story and his gradual transformation resonated with people. Compare that with Dazai who barely shows up, then pulls an Aizen and does a 180 in the span of a minute or so.

The story was goofy as shit but I won’t pretend I didn’t enjoy it. It’s genuinely funny to think about how some of the coolest cutscenes in the game had next to no plot relevance, if not disappointing. My man cumhail comes out of nowhere with a badass introduction, sporting some of the coolest attack animations I’ve ever seen and an awesome boss theme and when the battle is won he’s just a fucking dunce who mistook me for an enemy.

Agree with all your points. The story was definitely weak, and it’s not helped by having superboss Shiva make the Lucifer fight feel extremely dull. SMT 5 tried to do a similar story to Nocturne, but completely botched the execution. The alignment reps in Nocturne had you actually think about what choice to make and consider the other options, and that’s even if you’re completely committed to True Demon Ending. SMT 5’s reps weren’t quite clear on their choices early on nor were you considering which alignment to support while you played a vast majority of the game. A simple story can work even in 2022 but it has to be memorable.

Honestly, despite this games clear flaws, I still love it to death. Then again, smt Iv apocalypse is my favorite mainline game, so what do I know

Sorry, dude. Not gonna watch the whole thing. I love your videos, but I don't watch negative reviews of games I really like. It's depressing to a point where it ruins the entire day for me. Still gonna give it a like, since this isn't your fault.

I feel the main problem with this game is atlus trying to force megaten into the mainstream with this game (and is working to an extent) because persona got so popular with five. I mean I’d like for smt to be more popular but I want it too keep what made me fall in love with the franchise in the first place. But don’t mince my words here I adore this game is one of my new favorites but I can still see the issues the game has. Another thing of note this is the first time an smt had no real story involvement from Koneko (pretty sure I spelt that wrong) because 4a was still based off of the second half of the story he wrote for 4 and I don’t count the strange journey remake because most of the game is still SJ and that awful redux dungeon to get the new endings is optional to beat the game. There’s probably a similar issue with 5 that 4a had and that was the generational difference between the new and veteran developers and one both sides wanting the story to be a certain way (I don’t know this for sure don’t hold me to this statement). But overall I still love this game and Marsh thanks for this review I think it’s a nice change of pace compared to your typical content.

Thanks for the beta test .... *ニヤリ*

True Neutral ending is borderline psychotic with you genociding all demons after getting to know and bonding with them. None of the endings in this game is well-done at all. Felt like they just had to make Ichiro and Abdiel look comically evil to add more "nuance" to the different factions.

The stories of SMT are so cool, not because of characters, but because they're atmosphere and philosophical quandries are so naturally written and explored that it creates this beautiful rhythm and harmony unlike most traditional narratives. Take Walter and Johnathan, they're not super interesting, but the way these characters work within the story of SMT IV is really good. They add layers to the world, ideologies, and plot, and aren't so boring that it breaks my immersion. Character in SMT represent these perspectives that drive the gameplay and story beyond who they are as people, and that's the best part for me. The stories are like 1984 or stanley kubrick films, you're there for this exploration of ideas and a bizarre world with a deep atmosphere.

I put 200hrs into this game and I plan on playing more at some point. Game is good asf.

Anyone saying Nocturne doesn't have a good story is out of their mind man

I love how the law and chaos reps just die when you beat them, no pre death speech they just drop dead.

i do think the story was very much lacking like I was looking forward for a lot of cutscenes and story telling, but didn't that, which felt weird to me for a atlus game

Saying "You shouldn't care about the story in an SMT game" Is just a silly way for people to justify their purchase of SMT V. While the story definitely has very interesting concepts, they are simply either underdeveloped, underutilised, or rushed. It's a crying shame because, by the time I got invested in the game's plot, it just ended. I wanted to see more of Lucifer, I wanted him to explain the knowledge he gained in greater detail. I wanted to learn more about the involvement of the Demi-Fiend, rather than have him serve a meaningless role as a DLC boss. I didn't care AT ALL for the "real world" sections, which are utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things, as it is effectively a fake world anyway. The game spends too much time showing and explaining stuff that in the end means nothing. The amount of missed opportunities is staggering and it's so utterly disappointing. If I ever replay SMT V, I would skip every single cutscene, as they do absolutely nothing for me. The gameplay and team building is incredibly fun and maybe the best in the series, but the story is a complete and utter disappointment.

The skeleton of an amazing game is here...but it just doesn't have meat on its bones. It just needs a better story, deeper characters and more meaningful exploration. If it had all those things, it would be incredible and maybe one of the best jrpgs (in my opinion). All that aside, Gustav is mah boi forever.

Am I the only one who found SMT V to be a bit too easy? A lot of other SMT youtubers said it was a harder game but I had a pretty breezy time with bosses after the first few. I did use Artemis, who I will admit is a very strong dlc demon, but there are some you unlock through sidequests that are even more gamebreaking.

Above everything else, SMT V felt *empty* to me, in terms of gameplay, story, and environments. There's just such a lack of content for every element of the game; it's kind of a nothing experience. Even now, I find myself wondering what they spent that long development cycle actually doing.

I played through the whole game with my girlfriend. The moment Dazai took off his hat and made this evil grin, we both have burst into laughter. The story was just ridiculous, and not even for a moment did we really think about which side we should take, just how to get the secret ending. None of the character's motivation hooked us to even make us sligthly sympathize with them. This is unlike Nocturne, where I sympathized with Chiaki, only abandoning her reason when she commited genocide against Manikin (at which point I just went 'fuck that, I'm gonna destroy the whole world with Lucifer), meanwhile my girlfriend decided that Shijima sounds great and liked the fact that not once was Hikawa dependent on the player to achieve his goal (with the exception of the final moment, but every Reason needed the Demi-Fiend to bring it before Kagutsuchi). The only intriguing part of SMT V lore was discussing whether or not it could be a sequel to True Demon Ending, other than that, there was nothing of substance. Even the alignment choices were thrown in just for the heck of it, never having any substantial influence. You could just go all chaos choices for the whole game, yet at the end, because only a single choice matters which you make in the last half an hour of gameplay, you can just decide that actually, law sounds great. Are you serious? What happened to the complex system from SMT IV, where every dialogue choice mattered in the long run? Heck, even Nocturne which didn't have alignment system threw multiple questions at you, scattered throughout the game to decide what ending you will go through (unless you decided to fuck it all and complete Labyrinth of Amala). At some point, we just started ignoring the story and focused on combat and demon fusion, because at least that was still excelent. It just makes me sad in the long run, seeing how that part of the story I loved the most in those games, that being the conflict between philosophies and ideologies, was pretty much axed completely in this entry.

Honestly pretty convinced this is my favourite mainline SMT (so far) on merit of combat alone, there was basically no time I wasn't enjoying it. As far as exploration goes, I encountered something similar. Starting around Chiyoda it started to burn out somewhat, not to a point of dislike but enough to just kind of numb the experience compared to how it felt when I started. That said, much as I'd like to replay SMTV, I'd probably need a while before going back to it because the exploration overall probably wouldn't change much. I got something similar with FE: Three Houses, much as I love that game, the monastery sections are just too fresh in my mind for me to really get much out of going through them again this soon. The game could have used a greater proportion of dungeons to go through to at the very least break up the open world segments, I feel. WARNING: Story details beyond this point Biggest problem by far for me is story. I took True Neutral/Secret ending basically for content. Really, it feels like this should have been the standard neutral option. As in, to unlock this ending, you explicitly HAVE to do Khonsu's and Fionn's quests. And then the ending you get for presumably making some sort to connection with or getting better understanding of them is... creating a world where they don't exist. Why. I don't get it. While I generally found the characters did their jobs, at the least, they really suffer from the lack of screentime. Possibly something symptomatic of changing to a greater open world form of gameplay? In general the pace went weird to me, like you get thrown into Da'at and then the story takes the bench for the next like 8 hours or so before just a mass of plot before Shinagawa. I guess my overall thoughts on SMTV... the game's strongest suit, combat, is enough for me to call it a favourite on that alone. The exploration is good enough, albeit could use some fine tuning, namely greater location variety, as well as greater mixing with more traditional dungeons. Story is pretty easily the biggest weak point and really needed much more work, in it's current state it's just barely serviceable at best. For the next game, I'm absolutely not opposed to another game with an open world setup. However, the game does need to better story presence within the open world, and giving more equal weight between traditional dungeons and the open world. Probably kind of rambled a bit with this one, this was overall an experience where the negatives far from outweighed the positives for me, but the negatives regardless are pretty glaring and should be learned from. EDIT: forgot to mention, soundtrack is overall excellent. Special mention to Tokyo - Daybreak and Battle - Abdiel for personal favourites.

Still haven't finished the game yet, but to me it kind of feels like each of the game's four areas has the loose framework of a story that could drive an entire game on their own if properly fleshed out, but they just aren't. -Stranded in an apocalyptic world filled with demons and having to reunite with your friends -Protecting the "real world" from demons that have entered from the destroyed world, seeking human hosts to gain power -Fighting in a war between the forces of angels and demons -Getting in the middle of a battle for the throne of a dead God between deities of multiple factions. Maybe they could have tied all these threads together, but they probably should have just stuck with one or two of them. I'd say probably drop the "fake real world" angle since they did little with it outside the second arc and either just focus on the battle for the throne of heaven, maybe have some branching alignment choices like deciding who you take out first or form alliances with to drive the conflict forward, or if they really wanted the Nahabino thing to be important have the Gods seeking out human hosts and flesh out the main cast that way.

I really liked this review, it's definitely one of the better reviews I've seen. You bring up good criticism but you still manage to keep the charm of the way you talk about things. It'd be a lie if I said that I agreed with everything you said, but the arguments you used to back your opinions up were understandable and some even made me rethink some of my own opinions because you brought up things I haven't really thought about before. Overall this was a great review and another banger video, though it feels a bit weird to see you talk about a new game. Also small side note about the voices of the gods they sound incredibly goofy in English. They're a bit better in Japanese, at least in my opinion, so if you haven't heard their Japanese voices that might be worth checking out. Incredible video as always and I will now return to my cave and wait until you release your next video

Personally, I don't really agree with your review. To me, it's a 9 out of 10 gem and one of the best games in the series.

What surprises me most, is that SMTV seems to take a lot of inspiration from NieR: Automata for its atmosphere and environments, as well as the bombastic elements in the soundtrack. Surprising, because NieR initially reminded me most of SMT in terms of story and build-up, wearing some if its inspiration on its sleave.

I've been waiting to watch this video to not spoil myself and I finally got to finish the game thanks to emulators. It was one of my least favorite games in the franchise and an absolute chore to finish. The bad endings was just salt in the wound.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I do wonder if, perhaps, Atlus intended for V to be a hand extended to Persona-only players, or people who have never touched SMT or Persona in their lives. It feels too easy and too superficial for veterans but I’ve seen lots of newbies sing its praise. Perhaps that was the intention? Who knows.

Hee Ho thank you Ho for playing Hee Ho

I agree, the whole game played it extremely safe to the point of being uncreative. I keep seeing that the same writer(s) that worked on games like SMT IV A and TMS worked on this game, and you'd think that with a track record like that they wouldn't touch more games but here we are.

I love how auto-caption thought the video is Vietnamese and outputted complete English gibberish.

I still feel like SMT V's combat is a slight bit weaker than SMT IV Apocalypse. There's just way too many ways to cheese and the combat balance is off. It's a shame that after waiting for so long for another mainline SMT game, they couldn't get it right. The story being what it is, made me quit the game. I can't believe I played 15 hrs of the game in the beginning and had no story segments apart from the intro. Not exactly great pacing.

my controversial opinion about SMT5 **(spoilers)** is that I REALLY liked the concept of flipping the normal alignment rep ideals and moralities around, to where chaos/law feel like flawed but fair endings, and true neutral feels like pyrric victory ending comparatively, with goko hinting that you either dont feel like you made the right choice, or that the mandala cycle isnt REALLY broken, implying that you involved in this world and its inhabitants, and that you cant just either stay neutral/out of conflict when your loved ones livelihoods are at stake. I enjoyed how the human reps were done, Dazai felt compelling, even if abit silly in execution, but having a crisis of faith fuel a desire of power to make god's world felt like a neat twist, and yuzuru, while probably needing more character interaction with others, was caught up enough in the idea of having power to keep his friends out of fighting that he was unquestionably loyal to the PM's myriad of pantheons. The Demon reps I wouldve liked more development from but they complimented their human rep counterparts nicely. I think the big issue with the story comes down to some chaff in certain parts that either dont lead anywhere or leave character (shohei, miyazu) less developed than desirable, which on makes the great idea but bad/half arsed executions. Which sucks bc miyazu/khonsu's sidestory was the best written part of the game, confronting the idea of accepting the impending mortality of others. Im let down abit in the story compared to 4 and strange journey, but I still found alot of good concepts and idea in the story that drew me in

This game's story feels like a kneejerk reaction to Apocalypse's reception. I prefer the "tone" of the characters here compared to Apocalypse sure, but Atlus really dropped the ball in making any of the characters and its world endearing. SMT V and Apocalypse feels like they went too far on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Apoc tries too hard to be different, while SMT V is too afraid to steer away from what they think fans want. SMT V is mostly Nocturne 2.0, minus the stuff that made Nocturne's story and worldbuilding memorable. I hope Atlus learned from this and find that perfect middle ground between worldbuilding and characters for their next story like SMT IV and Strange Journey. Playing SMT V made me realize that I DO CARE for a good story in SMT.

I loved the game, but i cant help and think that atlus relocated recourses initially allocated for this game elsewhere. *cough couch* milking persona 5 *cough cough* (plz dont hate me i love persona as much as the next guy.)

I completely disagree with the "exploration" segment. I think the exploration in SMT V is innovative for the series and outclasses that of any other megaten game by a large margin. It's also way more fun imo. Other than that, I agree with your other points. Overall a really good video, I'd love to see you do more reviews.

the story isn't great but holy shit you did Nuwa and Yakumo dirty in this video, their vision for a neutral ending is cool,and I wish we got to see more of it

I don't really agree with you on exploration since for me personally it was my favorite part of the game along with the combat but the dungeons were definitely one of my least favorite parts. I also really didn't like the 4th area of the game and was my least favorite part to explore. I'm glad you brought up people always saying smt isn't about the story because that's just not true. I've never played an SMT game with a story that blew me away but I still thought they were decent, It feels like they just needed to put the game out already and decided to leave the story as barebones as it was. Good Video as always and excited to see what you do next!

My biggest issue with the secret ending is the fact that the side quests you need to do to unlock it aside from the Shiva fight all involve demons swearing loyalty to you or you helping their situation just for you to turn around and nuke them all. I initially thought it would have you turn the demons human since demons would always be able to overpower regular people, and I thought the "logical" solution was to make them like us... not kill all your new friends and for some reason have them be cool with that!?

I saw a meme that perfectly describes my thoughts & feelings about SMTV: "SMTV gameplay" - a pic of super smart Patrick Star in a lab coat looking at something through a microscope "SMTV story" - a pic of Patrick Star with a piece of wood nailed on his head

To me, I would describe it as falling into the "drop in the bucket" category. The game just felt like it came and went. Nothing really memorable about it. A lot of stuff feels either half-baked or just copied from past entries, lacking any sort of vision. And then the technical issues and long silence on top of this makes me seriously think that this game had a seriously rough development cycle. Hell, the fusion accident is just a red filter on top the regular one. Just things that make the game feel rushed. And it wouldn't surprise me if the whole thing underwent some kind of change in management midway through given that we were told that Yamai was the director originally only for it to be the Etrian Odyssey one now. As for Atlus learning from this? I wouldn't count on it given that this game was a smash success, so more than likely they are just gonna repeat as they know it works. Unless the old guard comes back, I don't see this series bouncing back to its former glory.

I think I would have liked SMT5 more if I hadn't played SMT4 before. Despite the large maps, SMT5 feels a lot emptier. Tokyo in SMT4 is really interesting. It felt like a Shadowrun-esque world and even if there were demons running rampant, there was a somewhat functional society there. One interesting thing I saw was that SMT5's background characters have almost blank faces as if they were part of simulated Tokyo.

Since the press turn gameplay has been pretty much perfected at this point, lets hope that smt 6 focus on improving the exploration and story.

My biggest gripe with the game was that no matter what choices you made the story will only advance in the one way the developers programmed it, or even worse it won´t until you pick the one that makes the story advance. Probably the weakest SMT when it comes to choice making, is so irrelevant that 90% of the game is the same for all routes. Atlus somehow reached pokemon levels of storytelling

Great first review Marsh . So I guess see you in 10 to 20 years when SMT6 comes out? *8^)* As for each individual part of the review, I quite agree with you and I was disappointed a little bit as I pressed on in the game because it unfortunately has some mistakes that require a Maniax-type of giant fix expansion to mend its mistakes. Here's what I found while playing the game and conducting some experiments : *Combat* - While the additions aren't bad individually, they mess the balance for one simple thing : the team decided to pull numbers and systems from Nocturne and I don't mean the press turn, I mean the damage calculation formulas and the stupid ideas Nocturne itself had regarding level affecting every single one of the stats of a character. But in SMTV it's far worse because the level is now more important in the damage calculations compared to Nocturne and due to the maximum amount of points you can put in a single stat being 999 like in SMTIV, it becomes exceedingly eggregious when you have to be at level 99 and have Agility at 999 to have 1/4 of a chance to dodge an enemy's attack or to up your own accuracy by 1/4. Comparetively, in Nocturne, while the Agility calculations were also fucked, they at least maxed out at 40 and by then the 1/4 chance was active for dodging. Not only that, there were bosses and enemies that maxed those stats in Nocturne wherein SMTV, nothing approaches that. Even the Super-Bosses, the normal and DLC one, never reach those stupid numbers which is another misstep and lack of understanding why Nocturne's combat had such small numbers and why SMTIV's had such big numbers and why they mattered. Not only that, for a game that is meant to be replayed and have a robust New Game+ and customization of both the character and the team, with the greatest ways to build a team given the miracles one has and the fusion mechanics, along with stat boosting items and the Compendium being a thing, along with your own character, for the first time in almost any monster training RPG I have ever played and they squander it with big numbers and shoddy damage calculations. They fail to understand what made both Nocturne's New Game Plus cool and what made SMT4-4A's New Game Plus cool as well and they mesh very badly in what SMTV tried to do. The reason I bring all this up is because the monster building aspect is fucked because of the numbers and unlike previous games, where building teams that are capable of facing each challenge which is ironic given the level of customization this game, where with enough persistence, you have have a Jack Frost with Agilao and +9 fire proficiency, the strongest Bufus due to the essences and buff his stats using balms / incenses. It's why people end up over-relying on Spyglasses and dampeners so much as a result : bad balancing. To me that is indicative of what the team tried to do and why it failed : it wanted to be Nocturne so badly without understanding Nocturne which isn't exactly a mind-boggling revelation when none almost none of the stuff that worked on Nocturne returned but that wouldn't have mattered when Atlus has been ignoring previous talent's suggestions in their games as is the case with SMT4 and 4Final regarding Kazuma Kaneko's concepts, story, characters etc and the team ultimately doing their own thing. And that segways me into the next part : *Story* - The story just screams "I wanna be Nocturne" and it fails because it tries to do three things : 1.)It wants to create the lonely atmosphere Nocturne had but fails for obvious reasons 2.)It wants to pull off the same twists Nocturne had with Lucifer, the way your friends transformed to something beyond the normals moral allignments(here for example Lucifer nudges Dazai to become Abdiel's Knowledge and Dazai accepting that suddenly makes him Vergil from the Devil May Cry series, complete with a fucking Devil Trigger and demon powers) 3.)It sought to do away with the usual allignments and instead offer choices upon to rebuild a world wrought from ruins but Nocturne was never in ruins, the apocalypse happened because the rebirth process was slow not because it was meant to be an apocalypse forever But these can't work because the team also got cold feet and decided to do the SMT thing of "everything must copy SMT1 regarding the allignment reps and how Lucifer is behind everything that is alluded in SMT1, 2, 4&4A(technically Satan) and Strange Journey because that's what SMT is" which then muddles things more when Nocturne stands out for not following that formula. Heck, the only innovation of the storytelling formula that Atlus had laid out, was that instead of only the Chaos rep fusing with a demon now it's fucking everyone that fuses with demons for no reason. Not only that, they bring in concepts like The Great Will, the Mandala system, etc etc as if it's some great shit like "hey guys, this game really is connected to SMT2, Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, SMT If... and SMT Nine, please like our story" but at the same time it goes "Whoops, we can't use previously established characters for that, here have new ones, Sophia instead of Midou, Gokou instead of Brahman from Digital Devil Saga, Lucifer instead Stephen, Yakumo instead of Raidou etc" and it fucks up everything. Heck, the endings are the worst because the game mocks you for your choices and the "True Ending" just reveals that hindu gods were the most evil fuckers after all because they wanted to tie it to DDS for some reason. And the reason Aogami is Susano'o, despite a fuckton of hints via gameplay and storytelling in just the first two hours of gameplay, rings hollow because then you have not-Shinzo Abe revealed to be his brother so of course you know it's gonna be Tsukuyomi and you know why? Because the "big bad" in Nocturne was Kagutsuchi as an avatar of the Sun that replaced the moon and its phases and Amaterasu would have been too close to that, so here's Tsukuyomi, the actual moon god that's evil. Just like Kagutsuchi but also like the moon phases so it ties thematically. Or at least, that's what the devs think but it's all lost in the mess of a story that constantly seems to rush you just to cram as many demons as characters in it because bosses need some story and whatnot. Part of the reason this happens, I think, is because the writers don't quite have the insane passion and batshit train of thought old Atlus had, with Kaneko, Satomi etc being completely enthrolled in things like the occult, sci-fi and theology crossover theories, myths and their origins - connections and all that, laced on top with what each member liked(Kaneko has talked multiple times about his love for Go Nagai's works, Saint Seiya, JoJo, Kamen Rider, Gunpla and certain Marvel characters / Spawn, Hashino liked JoJo and Gunpla, Cozy Okada liked Go Nagai as well along with Tokusatsu etc) and it showed in the final product but the new team seems to only like the tokusatsu and JoJo parts without having any particular love for the rest of the crazy shit the previous guys crammed into the series. It's why you could see Kaneko draw basically SMT's Ghost Rider with Hell Biker and so on. Meanwhile, new guys that seemingly never had interest in most of these things reflect that and it's why Doi's Odin is just Ultraman with different colours instead of Odin depicted as an Ultraman but sometimes he can get something cool done(Zeus being an example despite blatantly being Kamen Rider W FangJoker, the allusions to the myth are quite clever) but it's rare. Unfortunately, these are probably the kind of stories and characters we're gonna have from now on with SMT since it doesn't seem to be what Atlus is passionate about anymore and it's understandable, the newer people and people who used to work on other series, don't have to have the same passion. But it hurts the product. *Exploration* - This was botched but I know why it happened : the game's exploration screams at the player that it can hang out with the big boys, that it can have the wow factor Final Fantasy X on the Ps2 had and Xenoblade 2 on the Switch also had, with its vast fields, large monsters, great distances etc. But it's also a tech demo for Unreal Engine 4 on the Switch when it comes to JRPGs and it's painfully obvious. Along with the combat, the exploration is also easily fixed with an expansion, adding some instanced dungeons, instanced shops like having Rags and his buttbuddy Gustav have shops in certain places of the world only etc, have more dungeons etc. However, the reason I doubt this will happen compared to the combat is due to player's bitching about difficulty in exploration. I'm sure you're aware of the dungeon nerf that happened with 1.02. It's why I hold no hope for the exploration being bettered in an expansion, the players themselves said they didn't like the "difficulty" they were faced with, so Atlus probably won't go against their wishes. And that's it. Ultimately, I like the game despite its flaws but I wish it was much more thought out and developed ultimately because the concepts the game introduces and plays with have actual merit and can make for a really good SMT game. It's a shame it floundered so much. Sorry for writting so much but ultimately that's how I felt with the game. I'll say that if Atlus isn't feeling up to it anymore, maybe it's time to outsource the game to someone else at least for the development parts and see how it'll go : they already did that for Persona 5 Scramble with Koei Tecmo and it was a much more enjoyable experience for me and Nintendo hired them for their latest Fire Emblem as well. I wouldn't mind Koei making an action spin-off to SMT if that meant the Atlus devs get their shit together at the end or something.

The series has changed to the point that it no longer itself anymore... "The main point is that [SMT] is 'dark.' More than being actually 'gloomy,' it’s actually being able to say its story in a straightforward manner…show it with no dishonesty." - Kazuma Kaneko, 2004 All of this is missing in V.

i agree a lot with the story parts i'm fine with games giving you exposition on characters (especially games like ace attorney) but they still need to keep those characters interesting for that exposition to work and not just be plain explanations of the character, which i feel like the characters here just did not work with how much exposition a lot of them were given imo. especially Dazai, who was literally throwing every reason i should care about him and feel bad for him in my face whenever i talked to him and it just got to the point where it got unnatural hopefully the next mainline game can have better characters at least that's smth i def wanna see in these games more

As this is my first entry into SMT, I had a lot of fun because I wasn't really able to compare it to the other predecessors. Still I agree with your take on the story. Why is every character a walking story device and exposition tool? Why does your alignment barely matter? Why couldn't they have fleshed out the story more? After 10 hours of playtime it was the first time ever while playing a video game I said to myself "Wait, the story is kinda ass." The rest imo is pretty well done. The open-world does suffer from a few redundancies, nethertheless due to sidequestes and Mimans I felt immersed into it, but I would still love to see more dungeons and definetly better ones. The battle system and demon interactions are where the game shines and I think you grasped the best parts of it. Especially the special interactions of Belphegor with a lot of other demons is funny as fuck. Most importantly the music slaps.

Its feels odd to hear people say smt 5 was rushed. The game was announced all the way back in 2017 and i feel its safe to assume it was being worked on in some way at the time. You would think a game with that much time in the oven should be fully cooked, but it still came out a bit raw.

No, you are not alone. I desperately missed the dungeons and found Da'at SO boring. I'm now playing Strange Journey Redux and it really is hammering home how much more I prefer dungeon crawling to open world

I hope that set 6 would have a better story

If you're going to have a game with worlds to explore, they need to actually feel like worlds and not just copy paste levels for an empty plot that makes no sense. Other Megaten games -- 1, 2, 3, even 4 to some extent -- understood this. 5 doesn't.

I agree with everything. This game was fun, but I'm never, ever returning to it methinks. I really liked Apocalypse, by the way.

I bought a Switch for this way back when it was announced /revealed with the Switch. I’m picking up P5R instead all these years later and that makes me sad. I wanted the atmosphere of SMT. I love the movement of the blue haired character, sliding around dunes with strange creatures around alongside the awesome OST but the criticism around lack of story has prevented me from spending my precious money on it

Thank you Marsh for all your work with Shin Megami Tensei games.

I think that they just set some amount of money to develop this game and if it starts to reach that limit then they just start doing some bug fixing, gluing everything that's already in place and they released it hoping for the best, because i feel like its better at being a "game", than being a "smt game". If you know what i mean.

Mechanically I feel this is the best Megaten game, would've preferred if it had a similar laser focus on gameplay that BoTW had instead of offering an often unintentionally hilarious and weak narrative. I do feel the cinematics were very interesting on a technical level with the incredibly detailed environments and models, the great camera angles and animation though.

Shin Megami Tensei is second fiddle to Atlus in comparison to Persona that spun off from SMT hence certainly it doesn't have budget Persona mainline and even is spin off games, another is use of Unreal Engine 4 while designed easy for developers to learn and utilize, but it isn't in house engine that Atlus is using for Persona 5 and its revision Royal that are PlayStation 3 and 4 exclusive thus using UE4 as game engine for SMT V makes sense as many games on Nintendo Switch already used it since Epic Games officially supports it. Porting in house engine that is specifically made for P5 / P5R would require more work than to simply use UE4 and mainline Persona games and most of its spin offs are exclusive to PlayStation hence there was and there is no realistic possibility for any of us that there is any chance for Atlus to port their game engine onto Switch, even if they did then Atlus would have no excuse to give if anyone was to ask why mainline P5 with P5R wasn't on Switch despite having over 40 million users. SMT V is first SMT game with true open world maps for which there are new challenges and obstacles that Atlus has to handle thus developer with little to no experience involving that won't have way of relying on past works to make decisions hence making decision one has previously were not able to make carries risk, hence Atlus due to lack of experience either could not make diverse environment or choose not to in order to avoid potential problems, road blocks, etc... that may cause development hell and delays. One thing is certain, future Persona games are going to benefit from SMT V and avoid potential blunders that comes with first experience of open world game design.

Thoughts on the Megami Tensei II fan translation?

I see where you're coming from but i see the game as a strong 8 out of 10 or low 9 out of 10

I started being interested in the series because of you and thought this might be a good game to play but the world seemed boring and lifeless and seemed to focus on the combat that seems on the hard side for me. So i will still skip this

Yup, every area is different colored sand. I really think Atlus took 5 years optimizing the absolute shit out of a single tileset so switch could run a large open world with that fidelity so they had no choice but to reuse it.

I personally didn't finish the game, I dropped it around 40 hours in to the game or so after entering the third area of the game but I definitely agree with all of the critiques you had about the game. I can definitely say you are not alone in your criticisms about the open world exploration, lack of environment variety, extreme level scaling, damage sponge nature of enemies and the story itself. The story was incredibly disappointing and such a "nothing" experiencing for me that it honestly just left me with zero motivation to continue playing the game without anything to keep me hooked. I also felt the characters, at least the students, felt incredibly rushed and presented in a way where the game really expects you to care for them even though you've only known them for about an hour or two just for them to not exist afterwards. The combat in this game while it is fun to fight enemies they really feel like they go on for MUCH longer than in any other game I feel from how much damage these enemies tend to take, and from how incredibly costly skills are in this game it just means you're going to run a lot sooner than later which just means you'll be doing more and more teleporting back to the save points to recover your MP just to further progress where you were on the map. This goes double for the boss fights since they take even more punishment than the regular encounters. If the devs' intent was to make you periodically swap between demons during the fight as they run out of MP then they definitely succeeded in that regard, but I was not a fan of it all and felt like it added to more tedium than being engaged. One other aspect I just can't get over was the soundtrack for me, I've seen plenty of praise for it and while it's by no means a terrible soundtrack it feels like another disappointment for me. Most tracks I heard in the game barring about 5 or so I feel like didn't leave a lasting impact and even felt were oddly grating or even really generic/nondescript, if SMTIV's OST wasn't as fantastic as it was then I feel like this wouldn't even be a point I would be making in the first place but it's another one that bothered me a lot. Lastly, I can't help but find a lot of the Doi designs in general, not just the demons, to be incredibly underwhelming or outright an eyesore to me. I've seen a handful of the concept designs for Doi's demon designs and they're vastly superior to what we ended up getting but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some higher up intervention to make him redesign it to make room for a worse design (Especially that new Lucifer form, what the fuck were they thinking.) This whole aspect of Doi constantly doing sentai designs are terrible and I feel like he can't pull them off at all, especially compared to the guest designs we got in SMTIV (Astaroth, Minotaur, etc.) designed by actual sentai artists. It really feels like all I've been doing is complaining but that's just the way the game is to me really, "disappointing" is the most accurate way to put it. SMTV really feels like a "beta" for a concept of a game they had in mind instead of the full fledged new mainline entry I was hoping for it to be. And really, after looking at this game as a whole through other videos and reading stuff online, it just makes me wonder, what the hell were they doing during that entire 5 year development cycle when this is all they have to show for it? The game just comes off as incredibly sterile, safe, and more "corporate" for the current market. It might even be an indication of what possible new entries in the series might be like, and if that's what we're gonna get then I don't think I'd want to stick around for it. I know it all comes off as incredibly pessimistic but I can't shake off that feeling after seeing lots of other IPs suffer the same fate.